We investigate the radial color gradients of galactic disks using a sample of - 20 000 face-on spiral galaxies selected from the fourth data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey （SDSS-DR4）. We combine galaxies wi...We investigate the radial color gradients of galactic disks using a sample of - 20 000 face-on spiral galaxies selected from the fourth data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey （SDSS-DR4）. We combine galaxies with similar concentrations, sizes and luminosities to construct composite galaxies, and then measure their color profiles by stacking the azimuthally averaged radial color profiles of all the member galaxies. Except for the smallest galaxies （R50 〈 3 kpc）, almost all galaxies show negative disk color gradients with mean 9 - r gradient Ggr = -0.006 magkpc-1 and r - z gradient Grz = -0.018 mag kpc^-1. The disk color gradients are independent of the morphological types of galaxies and strongly dependent on the disk surface brightness μd, with lower surface brightness galactic disks having steeper color gradients. We quantify the intrinsic correlation between color gradients and surface brightness as Ggr = -0.011μd ＋ 0.233 and Grz - -0.015μd ＋ 0.324. These quantified correlations provide tight observational constraints on the formation and evolution models of spiral galaxies.展开更多
基金supported by the National Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.10573028 and 10803016)the Key Project(Nos.10833005 and 10878003)+1 种基金the Group Innovation Project(No.10821302)the 973 program(Nos.2007CB815402 and 2007CB815403)
文摘We investigate the radial color gradients of galactic disks using a sample of - 20 000 face-on spiral galaxies selected from the fourth data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey （SDSS-DR4）. We combine galaxies with similar concentrations, sizes and luminosities to construct composite galaxies, and then measure their color profiles by stacking the azimuthally averaged radial color profiles of all the member galaxies. Except for the smallest galaxies （R50 〈 3 kpc）, almost all galaxies show negative disk color gradients with mean 9 - r gradient Ggr = -0.006 magkpc-1 and r - z gradient Grz = -0.018 mag kpc^-1. The disk color gradients are independent of the morphological types of galaxies and strongly dependent on the disk surface brightness μd, with lower surface brightness galactic disks having steeper color gradients. We quantify the intrinsic correlation between color gradients and surface brightness as Ggr = -0.011μd ＋ 0.233 and Grz - -0.015μd ＋ 0.324. These quantified correlations provide tight observational constraints on the formation and evolution models of spiral galaxies.
